Grain cereals in the form of crispy flakes, toasted bits and the like have long been preferred as breakfast food in modern society due at least in part to their good taste and relative ease of preparation. Such cereals are most often served by being poured from their storage box into a serving bowl whereupon milk and sometimes sugar or fruit is added to taste. The cereal and milk mixture is then usually eaten with a spoon or other utensil.
A common problem with such cereals arises from the tendency of their crispy flakes or toasted bits to absorb the added milk within the serving bowl thereby rendering the cereal soggy and undesirable. This is a particular problem for those who prefer a leisurely breakfast since the cereal is suspended in the milk for longer periods of time. Soggy cereal is so undesirable that many people will not eat it and simply discard the soggy cereal and its milk, which can be wasteful and costly.
Past attempts to solve the problem of soggy cereal have generally been directed to treatment of the cereal itself to reduce its tendency to absorb milk. While treatment has proven somewhat successful and has even lead to claims by some cereal manufactures that their cereal stays crisp in milk, it has not been a complete solution because the rate of milk absorption is only retarded by the treatment and the cereal eventually becomes soggy anyway. Further, cereal treatment usually involves coatings of sugar or other additives that are objectionable to many people who prefer a more natural untreated cereal. For this reason, cereals that claim to stay crisp in milk have generally been confined to the pre-sweetened type usually marketed to children.
A continuing and heretofore unaddressed need exists therefore, for a method and apparatus of serving crispy cereal and milk that does not require coating or other treatment of the cereal but that nevertheless insures that the served cereal does not become soggy in its milk. It is the provision of a crispy cereal serving piece that embodies such a method to which the present invention is primarily directed.